Neither of us have been to Wisconsin before, so this part of the trip is like a blank slate for us. Since we’re in Door County, I was wondering how and why the county got its name and what was the big deal about coming here.
First, the big picture. The state looks like a left-handed mitten with the thumb being Door County. The joint of the thumb and the hand is the city of Green Bay. The water between the hand and the thumb is Sturgeon Bay, and the water to the east of the thumb is Lake Michigan. Sturgeon Bay now cuts through the peninsula about a third of the way up Lake Michigan, and a break in the land at its northern tip cuts it off from other northern islands.
Early residents of the area were Indians and French trappers. They tried to sail through the peninsula and its tip, but the rocky coast, fog, and fierce storms spelled disaster.
Later in the 1700s and 1800s, other sailors tried to save time (and therefore money) by navigating through the strait instead of around Washington Island at the furthest point, often crashing on the rocky shoreline. As lighthouses were built, fewer ships were lost.
In the 1880s, a one-mile canal was built from the south end of Sturgeon Bay to Lake Michigan. This canal cut off 100 miles of travel for ships leaving or going to Green Bay.
When we were at the tip of the peninsula, we saw the ferry to Washington Island shrouded in fog.
I’ll get into the importance of the island in future posts.
